Where can a Brit buy a good hot drink?

A national poll of 4,500 British consumers has put Greggs ahead of coffee giants Starbucks and Costa, in terms of value for hot beverages.

The survey, commissioned by Market Force Information, sees Greggs rank second in terms of friendliness of staff, speed of service and store cleanliness. The bakery chain performed better than CaffÃ¨ Nero, Costa and Starbucks, second only to Pret a Manger.

Drinks have been a big category for Greggs, with coffee having served as its fastest growing area for five or six years (‘smoother‘ coffee blends are included in the chain‘s popular lunchtime sandwich deals).

The research found that consumers were more likely to have frequented a coffee shop over 10 times in the last three months, with approximately a fifth of respondents citing that they‘d visited a cafe this often.

On the other hand, the nation is most likely to have eaten at a restaurant just once or twice in the last three months, and visited to a pub only two or three times.

Coffee is swiftly becoming the drink of choice for Brits. In its annual results, Greggs said that coffee sales in the lead up to Christmas had hit a record breaking £1m a week but it would seem US coffee retailer Starbucks is moving in a slightly different direction. Towards the end of last year, Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead commented on the company‘s plans to focus on growing its tea business, which had accounted for a “high single digit percentage of sales” in 2014. In addition, it recently announced a sophisticated upgrade to its menu, offering customers the choice of 10 different wines from 4pm in selected stores.